James Clayton MBE was a British mechanical engineer who worked extensively on railway locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s.

He attended the Technical School in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and thereafter served an apprenticeship at Beyer Peacock, becoming a draughtsman in their drawing office. After six years in that post he took a position with the South Eastern and Chatham Railway

South Eastern and Chatham Railway

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee , known by its shorter name of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway , that operated services between...

 (SECR). In 1904, he left for a year's work with the Motor Manufacturing Company, an automobile manufacturer in Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

, as their chief draughtsman and assistant works manager.

Following this, he was hired by Cecil Paget

Cecil Paget

Sir Cecil Walter Paget CMG, DSO , was a British locomotive engineer and railway administrator.Cecil Paget was the son of Sir George Ernest Paget, Chairman of the Midland Railway Company 1890-1911. He was born at Sutton Bonington, educated at Harrow and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and then joined...

, Chief Superintendent of the Midland Railway

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

, to work on his high pressure multi-cylinder locomotive

Midland Railway Paget locomotive

The Midland Railway's Paget locomotive, No. 2299, was an experimental steam locomotive constructed at its Derby Works in 1908 to the design of the General Superintendent Cecil Paget ....

. During his time with the Midland, he spent two years in charge of the casualty and investigation section, and was appointed Assistant Chief Locomotive Draughtsman in 1907.

In 1914, he rejoined the SECR and was soon Chief Locomotive Draughtsman. From 1919, he was Chief Mechanical Engineer Richard Maunsell

Richard Maunsell

Richard Edward Lloyd Maunsell held the post of Chief Mechanical Engineer of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1913 until the 1923 Grouping and then the post of CME of the Southern Railway in England until 1937....

's personal assistant, and later his deputy. When Maunsell became the Southern Railway's CME in the 1923 Grouping

Railways Act 1921

The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...

, Clayton continued as his deputy.

He was also very active in the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, serving as a member of its Council and later a Vice President.

External links

• James Clayton at www.steamindex.com